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Sunday, March 11, 2018

Cantabile.


Here's a Lorca sonnet I want to set to music as an art song. The translation aims to be singable.  I want it to be my first "art song":



Did you like the city that drop by drop
the water carved amid the pines?
Did you see faces dreams and roads
and walls of sorrow lashed by the wind?

Did you see the blue crack of broken glass
that the river splashes with crystal trills?
Did the hawthorns kiss your fingers,
crowning with love the faraway stone?

Did you remember me as you climbed
to the silence suffered by the serpent--
a prisoner of crickets and shady vales?

Could you see in the clear bright air
the dahlia of joys and sorrows
sent to you by my burning heart?

My translation might be different if it were not meant for singing, but I think it still stands on its own compared to a random sampling of translations you might find in a quick search.









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